


Jealousy Pancakes

by pterawaters



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Communication, Episode Tag, Food as a Metaphor for Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 18:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17812991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Danny makes Steve pancakes, and confesses. When Steve eats the pancakes, all is forgiven. A coda for 9x15.





	Jealousy Pancakes

 

Steve’s not sure what he expects to see when he shows up at Danny’s place at ten in the morning after the hurricane. He knew Rachel and Charlie were going to spend the night. He doesn’t expect them to still be at Danny’s place this late in the morning. Of course, he’s happy to see Charlie. It’s Rachel that Steve avoids seeing when he can help it. 

What doesn’t help this morning is the slightly mortified look on Rachel’s face when she sees Steve at the door. What does Rachel have to be mortified about? What the hell happened?

Danny’s got the first batch of pancakes on the griddle when Steve can’t bite his tongue anymore. He steps behind Danny carefully – this thing is still new, as old as it feels – and wraps his arms around Danny. “You gonna tell me what happened?”

“Uh-uh,” Danny says, waving his spatula around. “Pancakes were supposed to shut you up. This doesn’t sound like shutting up to me.”

“My mouth’s not full yet.” Steve hugs Danny’s sigh out of him and presses his nose into Danny’s right shoulder. He inhales, but gets a scent different than he expected. “Why do you smell different?”

“What’s with the twenty questions?” Danny snaps, turning out of Steve’s arms and heading for the cupboard with the plates. “Do you want pancakes or not?”

“Well, obviously yes.” Steve frowns, leaning back against the island counter. “Hey, this is a safe space, okay? You can tell me anything you need to say.” He gestures to the room at large with his hand to reinforce his statement.

Danny laughs. It’s a dark chuckle that reminds Steve of being trapped in a life-threatening situation. “Anything, he says.”

“Yeah, anything. Danny, what gives?”

Danny flips the pancakes and then turns toward Steve, crossing his arms over his chest. “Rachel and I fell asleep on the couch last night,” he says, all in a rush. “Charlie found us this morning.”

Ah. The different scent on Danny’s shoulder does remind Steve of Rachel’s presence in a room. He tries not to get angry, but he can’t help it. He paces away from Danny, around the kitchen island, needing that bit of space. “Charlie found you? What does that mean? You were naked?”

“No!” Danny cries, and the distress on his face is frankly comforting. “Nothing like that. I fell asleep, I woke up with Rachel cuddling me. That’s it!”

Taking a deep breath to try to cool off, Steve leans on the island, hanging his head and focusing on the pattern in the granite. Still looking down, he asks, “Totally unintentional?” 

“I swear,” Danny says, walking over and getting into Steve’s space again. Steve swears he’s the only one brave enough to pierce Steve’s personal bubble when Steve’s feeling dangerous like this. Lynn never would have. 

That fact alone means a lot to Steve. He reminds himself that Danny has never lied to him. Not once. In a soft voice, Steve says, “Don’t burn my pancakes.”

Danny curses and hurries back over to the stove. The pancakes he flips onto the plate are perfectly done, and evenly spaced with chocolate chips. He puts the plate on the island, slices a banana onto it, and then pushes the plate toward Steve like an offering. “It won’t happen again.”

“Burning the pancakes?” Steve asks, taking the fork Danny offers him.

“Letting Rachel get that close.” Danny scratches his temple. “I suppose I should have told her about us.”

Steve pulls out one of the stools and sits on it, pulling the plate of pancakes closer. “Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know!” Danny’s tone is exasperated, like he’s annoyed Steve thinks he should have the answers to these questions. “She’s gone through so much lately with the divorce, and Grace’s accident. I didn’t want to upset her. Or flaunt anything, maybe. I’m not sure.”

The pancakes smell too good and Steve is too hungry to hold back from cutting off a bite and shoving it into his mouth as he processes what Danny has told him. The perfect soft texture of the pancake, the way the bitterness of the chocolate sets off the sweetness of the banana, everything about it does wonders to settle Steve’s anger. His jealousy, if he’s honest with himself. He doesn’t bother to swallow before saying to Danny, “You have to tell her.”

“I know. I know I do.”

Steve’s mouth is watering at the taste of the pancakes, but it’s not quite enough after the night he’s had. Swallowing that first bite is a challenge. “You got any milk to go with these bad boys?”

Danny rolls his eyes. “Ruled by your stomach, I swear…”

“Oh, and butter while you’re in there.”

Danny grumbles, but he passes over the butter and a knife, then pours Steve a glass of milk. After he’s put the glass in front of Steve, he pulls his phone out of his pocket. 

“Who are you calling?” Steve asks, spreading the butter between the layers of pancakes. 

Danny holds up a finger with one hand, and uses the other to hold the phone next to his ear. “H-hey. Hi, Rachel,” he says into the phone. “No, you didn’t forget anything. I just–” He sighs. “I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea. About last night.”

He waits for a moment, listening to Rachel’s part of this conversation, which Steve wishes he could hear. Steve takes a gulp of his milk instead, the cool liquid soothing his parched throat. 

“Yeah, no,” Danny says. “It  _ was _ nice. But, Rache, I’m seeing someone.” 

He pauses again, looking up at Steve with an awkward smile. 

“Yes, it’s serious. So just…don’t read too much into last night. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Steve takes another bite of his pancakes and wonders what else he can get Danny to cook off this one incident. 

“Okay. Bye, Rachel.” Danny turns off his phone and faces Steve. “How’s that? Happy?”

“You didn’t say it was me you’re seeing,” he points out, still chewing as he speaks. He cuts off another bite with his fork and shoves it into his mouth.

“Oh, my god!” Danny throws his hands up in the air and turns away, before turning back again. Steve has always been a fan of Danny's little "frustration spins", as he likes to call them. "If she asks, I will tell her. Okay?"

"Okay," Steve agrees.

"Okay? Just like that?" Danny's smile is tentative as he steps closer to Steve again. "Why aren't you making a bigger deal out of this?"

Steve asks himself that same question as he finishes chewing and takes another swallow of milk. "Well, I guess it's because number one, I trust you. And number two, these pancakes are awesome!"

Danny laughs, and Steve laughs right along with him. "The pancakes? They're that good, huh?"

"Make some more so you can get in on this action." Steve takes another bite, chewing emphatically.

Danny takes a fork out of the drawer and asks, "What? So I can't have a bite of those ones?"

"These are mine, Danno." Steve hunches protectively over his food, putting his shoulder between Danny and the plate. "I'm not sharing!"

"Don't worry, babe," Danny says patting Steve's shoulder and kissing the back of his head. "I wouldn't ask you to. Not really."

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/pterawaters).


End file.
